Mobile computing devices become increasingly popular. Unauthorized access of the mobile computing devices can jeopardize privacy and confidentiality of the users of the devices. Data security of the mobile computing devices becomes an important issue in view of the popularity of the mobile computing devices.
Typically, login password mechanism embedded in the operating system and/or the BIOS of the computing devices is used to prevent unauthorized log-ins into the devices. However, even with the log-in password protection, the data contents of a computing device can still be accessed by physically removing the storage component from the computing device and plugging the storage component to another device with total access control.
A data encryption method can be used to encrypt data stored in the computing device. The encrypted data cannot be compromised by a hacker even when the storage component is removed from the computing device, unless the hacker knows the encryption key. However, the user of the computing device may lose the encryption key. Since the data stored in the computing device are encrypted using the encryption key, even the user cannot access the contents of the data without the encryption key. Further, if the hacker finds out the location where the key is stored and receives the key from the location, data security can be compromised as the hacker is able to access the data using the key.